Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 2).djvu/21

Rh the surrounding ground, especially when worn by the hoofs of Indian ponies laden with peltry or stores. Often, however, when on a rocky ridge, the path was not worn perceptibly into the ground. It is a matter of record that when Washington and his company made a night march from Fort Necessity to find Sieur Jumonville's hidden "embassy" on Laurel Hill, the men frequently lost the trail and spent some time in finding it again. In many instances the depression in the ground of an Indian trail can be recognized today. The very appearance of the summits of certain ranges of hills now gives testimony, which is borne out by the oldest inhabitants, that a pioneer roadway followed an Indian trail along that height of land. "We have gone up the Kittanning gorge," writes an historian of Juniata valley, Pennsylvania, "and looked upon the road  and were forcibly struck with the idea that it must once have been traversed, without knowing at the time that it was the famous Kittanning trail." This writer affirms that the trail was then worn a foot below the